Material handling is the movement, protection, storage and control of materials and products throughout manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, consumption and disposal. As a process, material handling incorporates a wide range of manual, semi-automated and automated equipment and systems that support logistics and make the supply chain work.
There is a variety of manual, semi-automated and automated material handling equipment and technologies available to aid in the movement, protection, storage and control of materials and products throughout manufacturing, distribution, consumption and disposal.
These include:
- Automated storage and retrieval systems
- Automatic guided vehicles (AGVs)
- Automatic identification & data collection
- Casters and wheels
- Controls
- Conveyors
- Dock equipment
- Ergonomics
- Hoisting equipment
- Industrial robots
- Integrated material handling systems
- Item order fulfillment systems
- Lift trucks
- Monorails and workstation cranes
- Overhead cranes
- Packaging
- Protective guarding
- Racks
- Software
- Sortation
- Storage
